The 24th Mariological Marian International Congress, held from the 6th to the 11th of September 2016 under the theme The Fatima event a hundred years later. History, message and relevance, and presided by the Special Envoy of the Holy Father, integrates the initiatives promoted by the Shrine of Fatima in order to celebrate the first centennial of the apparitions of Fatima.
The objective of the Congress, in which specialists in Mariology and scholars coming from different parts of the world will participate, is eminently scientific. If, in one hand, the results of a rigorous, critical and updated study of the inherent documentation to the history of the mariophanic event occurred in Fatima will be announced and discussed, on the other hand, there will be an attempt to delineate some consequent signs in order to deepen a message that, for its dense contents, represents a “prophecy” full of hope for the Church, the humanity and the contemporary world. This intense work of interpretation, confrontation and updating is conducted in the light and based on the reports presented by several specialists during the general sessions as well as on the concepts proposed during the group works, divided by their languages’ sphere.
Together with the purely Mariological and scientific component of the event, the Congress will also be defined, in a harmonious way, by a more specifically Marian dimension: in addition to the liturgical celebrations of opening and closing moments and the daily Eucharist, the program provides the participants with several moments of prayer in union with the spiritual life of the Shrine.